


Niall Has A Date, Louis Doesn't Care

by akikotree



Series: San Francisco Dance AU [5]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Modern AU, OT5 Friendship, RPF, San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco Giants, Tinder, real person fic, san francisco dance au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-26
Updated: 2015-01-26
Packaged: 2018-03-09 03:58:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3235439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akikotree/pseuds/akikotree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis had, predictably, put his paper off until the very last possible weekend and was now sweating and cursing over it. Niall, with nothing else to do, was lying sprawled out on the couch beside Louis's table scrolling through tinder. Tinder was this awesome new app the dance girls had put him onto. According to Perrie “everyone” in LA used tinder but it was still catching on here in northern California.</p><p>Part 5 of the San Francisco Dance Au series. All of the boys attend a modern ballet school in San Francisco. Niall finds himself with some time on his hands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Niall Has A Date, Louis Doesn't Care

It was the first week of November and a damp cold fog had pressed in against the windows. Louis and Niall had been sexiled to the small uncomfortable dorm common area. Needless to say their already lukewarm feelings about their third roommate, Thomas, had taken a turn for the worse. 

“I have a _fucking_ paper to write,” Louis had snarled. “Who would even sleep with that asshole?” 

“Beatrice, apparently,” Niall had said. “I think the lounge is empty. C'mon.” 

Usually the two of them went to Harry and Zayn's apartment on the weekends instead of staying in the dorm. But it had been a long week. By the end of the day on Friday they'd all been tired and grumpy, with Zayn hinting heavily that extra company in the small apartment would not be particularly welcome. Liam hadn't been staying in the city much the past two weeks either, heading back everyday after class to San Rafael with the rest of the academic dance majors. Niall missed hanging out with him but he understood. Liam, as he had frequently reminded them, had six papers to write this semester and final exams for his academic classes. This was on top of preparing for the fall showcase, still coming up in early December. The dance-only majors at Directions had just one paper to write and Niall had already finished it. They'd had to pick a choreographer they liked, find at least three full videos of his or her pieces, and analyze the style and influences in five to seven pages. Pretty easy. Niall had picked Eric Campros which allowed him to watch multiple Backstreet Boys music videos and call it homework. Louis had, predictably, put his paper off until the very last possible weekend and was now sweating and cursing over it. Niall, with nothing else to do, was lying sprawled out on the couch beside Louis's table scrolling through tinder. Tinder was this awesome new app the dance girls had put him onto. According to Perrie “everyone” in LA used tinder but it was still catching on here in northern California. 

Niall thumbed through profiles on his phone. Well, this girl looked pretty nice. Oh, pink hair! Yes. Holding a puppy, also yes. Holding an ice cream cone, absolutely yes. Niall would have loved some ice cream right now. This girl... was not really his type. But she was probably a really lovely person... he'd say yes anyway. This girl was six years older than him... but she had great smile. He would say yes to that. Niall had an extremely hard time disliking anyone's account. It made him feel bad. And he had listed that he was interested in people to just be friends with as well as people to date. He was sure he'd be friends with all of these girls, if ever they happened to met. 

He flipped to the next profile. Robin, age twenty one. The picture showed a smiling red-haired girl at AT&T park, wearing a Giants t-shirt. She looked very familiar. Niall frowned, trying to place her... then realized it was the waitress who often took their orders at Lucky Cat. The nice one who always smiled at him and stopped to chat. 

“Oh, _that_ Robin,” said Niall. He tapped the info icon to take a look at the rest of her pictures. There she was holding an orange and white cat; walking along the beach with the city in the background; out with a group of friends at a restaurant; standing smiling in front of the Palace of Fine Arts. They had no mutual facebook friends but they did have some overlapping liked pages- city of San Francisco, _Buffy the Vampire Slayer, How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men,_ U2, Snow Patrol, _Calvin and Hobbes._

“Hey, Louis, look,” said Niall, leaning over to show Louis his phone. “Look who I just found on tinder!” 

“I do _not_ give a shit,” snapped Louis, not looking up from his computer. 

“Well fine,” said Niall, retreating back to the couch. Earlier he had offered to help Louis with his paper but Louis had nearly bitten his head off. Niall had come to realize there was just nothing you could do when Louis got like this. 

Niall swiped right on Robin's profile and tinder informed him that it was a match- apparently Robin had already liked his account! That was pretty cool. He realized he hadn't actually read the tiny blurb on her profile and went to look at it again. A moment later his phone chimed, letting him know he'd received a tinder chat message. It was from Robin. 

_Are you one of those dancer boys who always comes into LC at 10 at night?_

 _Yes,_ typed Niall. _The Irish one :)_

Chime! _Sweet. I see we have some similar TV shows :)_

 _Yes I love those shows they are awesome,_ Niall responded.

Chime! _Buffy is my favorite show of all time_

 _It is an excellent show,_ typed Niall.

Chime! _But who is your favorite character, that is the real question_

 _Willow,_ typed Niall. _The red-head :P_

Chime! _Lol_

Louis looked over at Niall's phone with distaste. Niall quickly turned the volume down to the lowest setting. _Who's yours?_ he texted back. 

_Spike,_ she sent. _The blond with an accent :P_

Niall laughed. 

_Hey we should be fb friends, add me, Robin Schwartz-Smith,_ she sent.

_Oh for sure,_ Niall agreed. 

He exited tinder and logged into facebook. Only one Robin Schwartz-Smith came up in the search so she was easy to find even though the profile picture was of Charlie Brown's Little Red-Haired Girl. Niall sent her a friend request and then went and browsed through his home page. The post at the top was a link from Zayn, a youtube video for some local rap artist that they had talked about at least two days ago. Zayn had promised to post the link right way, but as usual it took him a day longer to do anything online than it would take a normal person. Liam had posted a status update: _Three papers down, three to go._ There was a comment from Greg and a gif posted to his wall from Harry- a pair of scissors melting in a fire, with the comment _SEE NIALL I WIN._ Niall snorted. He needed to find the absolute perfect gif to respond... how about... a kid at a safari about to take a bite of a banana. Suddenly the banana was stolen out of his hand by a chimpanzee and the kid burst out crying. Niall posted it and commented _THIS IS YOU HARRY_ (just in case it wasn't obvious). 

About five minutes later Niall remembered why he had gone on facebook in the first place and saw that Robin had accepted his friend request. Scrolling through her wall Niall saw that Robin was a student at the City College of San Francisco where she was majoring in nursing, that she lived in an apartment with three other girls and that she sometimes wore thick black hipster glasses, presumably when studying. She was very cute, Niall decided. 

A facebook message popped up from her. 

_Hey we should hang out sometime, you know, not at LC,_ she wrote. 

_Totally,_ sent Niall. He went back to her photo albums. Lots of pictures of her at Giants games, wow. She was a fan. 

_Pretty over Chinese food,_ she sent. 

_Oh no D: I'm be so sad if my job made me dislike any of my fav food groups!_

_Lol_

Here was a picture of her with some of her roommates at a baseball game- a set of pictures at a game with what looked like her parents- a few pictures of a sunset over the field and of the little boats in the bay. 

_I'm free sunday...?_ Robin messaged- and Niall, belatedly, got with the program. A girl, that he had matched with on tinder, said they should hang out sometime. She meant a date, duh. 

_Do you want to go get dinner that is not Chinese with me on Sunday,_ he typed quickly. 

_Sounds good to me :)_ she replied. _Where should we go?_

 _Why don't you pick you know SF better than I do,_ Niall sent. 

_But I'm paying :)_ He added, just to make things clear. 

She sent a smiley face, then a few minutes later a link to the menu of a Thai fusion noodle place in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. 

_How does that look,_ she asked. 

_Perfect,_ he typed. _Can't wait._

 _:D :D :D_

Three extra-happy faces! Awesome. He was rocking this already. 

“I have a date!” Niall declared triumphantly to Louis. 

“Hooray for you,” said Louis.

***

The next day, Sunday, Robin picked Niall up just after 5pm outside the Directions dorms. As soon as he got into the passenger seat Niall wished he had dressed up a little more. Robin was wearing a dress, something he'd never seen before- when waitressing she always wore black slacks and a plain white shirt. He had showered and gotten his hair to do what he wanted, but had only put on jeans and his favorite hoodie over a t-shirt. At least he was clean.

“Thanks for picking me up,” said Niall, after they'd both said hello. “My one friend with a car was unwilling to chauffeur me.” 

“Oh, no worries,” said Robin, smiling at him. “It's not even my car, I'm borrowing it from one of my roommates.” 

“You look really nice,” Niall told her, which was true. Her dress was blue with three quarter sleeves and a pleated skirt that fell just past her knees. 

“You smell nice,” she replied immediately. 

“Oh, t'ank heaven for that,” said Niall, wiping some imagined sweat from his brow. She laughed. 

“Have you been to the Haight-Ashbury before?” Robin asked. 

“Nope,” said Niall. 

“It's a pretty cool neighborhood,” she said, waiting for a light to turn. “It's probably most famous because the Grateful Dead lived in a house there in the sixties and seventies. You know, the band?” 

“I know of them,” said Niall, though he didn't actually know anything _about_ them. The few songs of theirs that he had heard had been long and kind of boring. 

“My parents are big Dead Heads,” Robin explained. “Lots of people their age are. Going to Dead shows was like, this massive cultural movement around here. Anyway- the Grateful Dead lived in the Haight and it's still very hippie and artsy...” She seemed to realize she was rambling, and she gave him a slightly apologetic look. “You'll see.” 

“I'm excited to!” said Niall. “I haven't really had much time to do touristy things since we've been so busy with school.” 

“No Alcatraz Island, no Coit Tower... no museums?” she asked. 

“I haven't even been to the Golden Gate Bridge yet,” Niall admitted. Robin exclaimed over this as completely unacceptable. 

“Maybe I'll take you,” she said, with a little smile. 

“Oh-” said Niall, surprised. He had honestly been assuming that he would go with Harry, Liam, Zayn and Louis at some point. Probably some weekend when Harry got one of his plans, like the plan that had lead to a picnic in Dolores Park. But- yeah. Going with a girl instead would be good. 

“Maybe,” said Niall. They were both quiet as they passed by a long narrow park and a herd of bicyclists. They turned onto Masonic, then onto Haight and right away Niall began to see the murals. A huge store on the corner had been painted bright with colors- fat decorative pillars with yellow, blue and pink diamonds, black tile work with rainbow accents, geometric rainbow patterns painted above the windows. Further along was a shop painted neon green with purple accents, a bar in red, green and metallic gold, a mural of a running cat that showed the bones and organs beneath the fur. A mural of a woman surrounded by butterflies. A grocery store front painted with vegetables and farm fields. A burger joint whose second story was done in sections of sunrise and night sky. A shoe store entirely covered in flowers. 

“Ah, Zayn would love this!” exclaimed Niall, trying to watch both sides of the street at once so as not to miss anything. “I must bring him here!”

Robin raised an eyebrow. “One of your friends?” 

“Yeah, the one with the eyelashes and ah-” Niall gestured vaguely all over his face. “He's like, the pretty one.” 

“I think I know who you mean,” laughed Robin. 

“He draws and stuff,” said Niall. “Makes up stories.” 

“And dances?” 

“And dances,” said Niall. 

The restaurant was pretty full when they finally got inside, but the receptionist said he could seat a party of two in fifteen minutes or so if they cared to wait. Robin and Niall stood together in the narrow hall. Just opposite and behind a counter a chef was frying huge batches of noodles and vegetables in fragrant orange oil. The slight case of nerves that usually accompanied a first date had finally caught up with Niall. It had been remarkably easy to talk to Robin in the car but now he couldn't think of anything to say. Apparently she couldn't either, so instead they just smiled a little at each other and watched the chef toss the noodles in a wok almost three feet in diameter. Before too long the receptionist was back and took them to a little table against the wall in a second room. 

Robin ordered Yellow Coconut Curry and Niall ordered Beef Broccoli Jade Noodles because he liked the name (honestly, everything looked delicious). The act of ordering food seemed to give them back their voices. 

“So how long have you been living in California?” Robin asked. 

“About three months,” said Niall. “Since the start of the fall semester. What about you?” 

“Born and raised in San Francisco,” she said, smiling. “Not as unusual as it would be in New York.” 

“And you're in school here,” said Niall, recalling from facebook. 

“Yes, just at a community college for now,” she said, as if this were not very impressive. “I'm getting my G.E.s done, you know. I'd like to transfer to a four year school pretty soon.” 

“In the city?” Niall asked. Even just a community college was fairly impressive to him. He had no intention of attending any sort of college. Unlike Liam, he liked only having one paper due per semester. Zero papers due per semester would have been even better. 

“There's a school up in San Rafael I like, Benedictine University- they have a very good nursing program,” said Robin. “Or so I've heard.” 

“Oh, one of my mates goes there- Liam!” said Niall, excited to recognize the name. “He likes it!” 

“I thought he was in the dance program with you?” Robin frowned. 

“He is- he's doing both. Like, double majoring,” Niall waved away the details. “Liam is one of the hardest working guys I know- he thinks about everything and he looks out for the rest of us. If he thinks it's a good school I'm sure it's excellent.” 

“Good to know,” said Robin. A waiter turned up a few minutes later. Their food arrived it huge steaming bowls, satisfyingly enormous portions. Niall tucked in happily. 

“This is amazing,” said Niall. “Good pick on this place!” 

“This is so much food,” said Robin, looking a bit overwhelmed by her plate. 

“I'm going to eat the whole thing,” stated Niall. 

They ate in companionable silence for a minute or two. The chatter of a full house and the clink of cutlery filled the space. 

“You aren't quite what I expected from a dancer boy,” said Robin, after a little while. When Niall looked up she was raising an eyebrow, possibly over the way he had just wolfed down half his noodles. Niall slowed down a little, sheepish. 

“In what way?” he asked. 

“Well, _not gay_ for one thing,” Robin said archly. Then she covered her mouth. “Er- I hope you're not gay...” 

Niall laughed. _“I'm_ not but all four of my best friends are. I had to like- come out to them as straight. I think they were all really surprised...” 

“That will be the four you always come in with to the restaurant,” said Robin. 

“Yeah, that's them,” said Niall, fondly. “Best mates in the world.” 

“I wish I had four best friends,” Robin looked a little wistful. “Or even one.” 

“You must have friends,” said Niall. “Or were all those cool looking people in your facebook photos paid actors?” 

Robin laughed. “I do have friends, and lovely ones, I know I shouldn't complain. But it's- it's not easy to stay close with the friends I had in high school and it's also hard to make good connections with people at a community college.” 

“Why is that?” asked Niall. 

Robin set down her fork and leaned back a little to think about this. “Probably because so many people are just passing through,” she said at last. “You know, people come in just for one semester, or even just one class. I might make a really good friend in the fall but then when spring comes they're gone.” 

“That sounds really lonely,” said Niall. He couldn't imagine the friendship he had with the other boys, new as it was, dissolving so quickly. Surely nothing could happen that would keep them apart. Could it? _No,_ Niall decided. _Nothing._

“Sorry, I don't mean to be depressing on a first date,” said Robin. “Tell me- tell me about Ireland.”

“Ireland is the best country in the world,” Niall declared. “It's a great place to be from because everyone wants to know what it's like and all the girls like my accent.” 

“Do they,” Robin laughed. “I've always wanted to visit. My parents went before I was born- looking for some very distant relatives.”

“Did they find them?” asked Niall. Then he squinted his eyes at her, mock suspiciously. _“Are we related?”_

“I doubt it!” said Robin. “I've heard over thirty million Americans claim heritage from Ireland.” 

“What?!” Niall exclaimed. “There are only four and a half million people in the county!” 

“I guess everyone wants to be Irish,” said Robin with a little shrug. A waiter came over to refill their water glasses and ask them if they were alright, and they both assured him that they were. Niall now felt it was probably his turn to ask Robin about herself. He cast around for a subject. 

“So- what do you do when you're not studying?” he asked, a bit at random. 

“I'm always studying,” she deadpanned. 

“That's not true,” Niall pointed his fork at her. “You aren't studying now. And I saw _quite a few_ pictures of you rooting for a certain sports team...” 

“Oh!” Robin grinned. “Okay, fair, I do go to a lot of baseball games. My parents buy season tickets every year, so I try to go whenever there's a home game on a weekend, or night game if I'm not too swamped.” 

“Pretty big fan?” Niall raised an eyebrow. 

Robin looked back at him seriously. “My family _bleeds_ orange and black.” 

“When did you... or... how long have you been into it?” Niall asked. What he was trying to ask was if she had been a sports fan when she'd been a little girl but he didn't want to end up sounding sexist. Girls could like sports too! Baseball just seemed a strange one to choose... 

“Always,” said Robin. “But especially when I was between eight and twelve, in the early 2000s. That was when Barry Bonds and TJ Snow were on the team. It was a very exciting time. Bonds hitting all the home runs- broke the world records for a single season and for a career! We went to so many games in those years. And the kayakers flooded McCovey Cove, everyone wanting to catch the record breaker- it was crazy. Everyone brought gloves. And I loved the Walker chickens!” 

“The what?” Niall asked, confused. He was relatively sure she did not mean actual chickens. 

“The intentional walk chickens!” Robin exclaimed. Her eyes had lit up, and she pushed her plate away a little bit. She gesture emphatically as she explained. “Barry Bonds was just getting so many homers the opposing pitchers got afraid to face him. So they'd throw him four pitches no one would swing at and give him a walk. This happened _all the time._ Someone, I'm not sure who, decided to hang up a rubber chicken on one wall of the stadium every time Bonds drew a walk- because the other pitcher had been too chicken to face him. And they sold rubber chickens, called Walkers, to the fans.” 

“Ha!” said Niall. “That's good. I like that!” 

“I had a little chicken dance,” said Robin, sounding mistily reminiscent. “Whenever they put up a chicken I'd make my father do the chicken dance with me...” 

“You _must_ show me this chicken dance,” said Niall. 

_“Absolutely not,”_ said Robin. 

“No, you have to! You can't just bring up something like that and leave me hanging,” said Niall. “Come on!” He made puppy eyes. 

“Maybe someday after a few drinks,” laughed Robin. “Unlike you, I do not dance when sober.” 

“That's a real shame,” said Niall, and he meant it. No one should be afraid to express themselves! Even if they ended up looking a little silly. Nothing wrong with looking silly. That was pretty much his life motto. 

Niall had cleaned his plate by now, and Robin had eaten over half of hers. When their waiter came over to ask if they were ready for a check and if she wanted a box Robin said yes to the first and no to the second. Niall thought that was a sad waste- he'd have taken her leftovers- but it seemed rude to ask for them, even if he was paying. He left a nice tip, aware that he was sitting across the table from a waitress. Robin stood up to use the restroom and Niall snagged her coat from the back of her chair and helped her put it on when she returned. She gave him a sweet smile and Niall walked out of the restaurant feeling like a proper gentleman. 

“This was really fun, we should do this again sometime,” said Niall as they walked back to the car. He was assuming the date was over now. 

“Oh!” said Robin. “Do you need to get back so soon? I was thinking I'd take you to one more place...” She trailed off, uncertain. 

“Oh- no- that'd be great,” said Niall, recovering himself. “Uh- what did you have in mind?” Robin did not seem like the kind of girl who took a guy back to her place at the end of first date, but he supposed you never knew... 

“There's this dessert place not far from here I've heard really good things about, called Candybar,” said Robin. “Does that sound... good?” 

“Please tell me it's actually a bar that serves candy,” said Niall, with feeling. “Because that sounds amazing.” 

“It's a cocktail place that also serves desserts,” Robin said. 

“Lead on,” said Niall. 

Candybar was less than ten minutes away and they totally lucked out with a parking spot. It was a bright little oasis incongruously placed in the middle of what looked like an otherwise residential street. Niall's eyes widened when they stepped inside. There were comfy couches and low tables filling the front part of the bar, giving it the air of someone's well co-ordinated living room. There were paintings hung on some of the walls, and two tall shelves filled with board games and card games. A loud group on the right was playing a game of Apples to Apples which had probably gotten steadily more hilarious as the drink glasses piled up around them. On the left was a quieter group pouring over Settlers of Catan and eating chocolate cake with raspberries and cream. On the shelves Niall spotted Risk, Monopoly, Pandemic, Chess, Checkers, Sorry, Dominion and Ticket to Ride. Behind the living room area was a fully stocked bar and a few smaller tables for people who just wanted talk or drink over a hand of cards. 

“Oh my god, Harry would go crazy here! I'll have to tell him about this place,” said Niall. “This is the best!” Robin dimpled in pleasure. 

They settled down at one of the smaller tables and perused the menus. Niall raised his eyebrows over the prices. It looked like dessert might cost just as much as dinner. 

“Let me get you something,” said Robin, seeming to guess his thoughts. 

“You sure?” asked Niall. 

“Yeah- you got dinner, let me pay for dessert,” she said. 

“Well in that case- waiter, I'd like one of each, please!” Niall waved as if flagging down an invisible staff person. 

“No!” said Robin, giving him a little shove with her elbow. “You can have _one._ Or, well, I'll get you one- and if you want more then get them for yourself.” She laughed. 

Niall ended up ordering a Peanut Butter Jelly Time (once again, the name tipped it in his favor) and Robin got a Strawberry Lemon Cup. They each shared a bit and decided they were equally delicious. Robin did not order a drink, as she was driving them home, and Niall did not order a drink, because Louis was not around with his fake ID. 

“I have to get up at 6:30 for school tomorrow anyway,” Robin remarked. 

“Hey me too!” said Niall. “But for dance.” 

“My sympathies,” said Robin. 

“I don't mind,” said Niall. “I mean- I'd sleep longer if I could, but I'll get to see Harry and Liam and Zayn in the morning. I haven't seen them all weekend!” 

“You're really close with them, aren't you?” Robin asked. 

“Oh yeah,” said Niall. “We live in each others' pockets most of the time.” 

“So you mentioned Zayn- he's the one who'd like the murals. And you mentioned Liam- he's taking classes at Benedictine,” Robin was ticket them off on her fingers. “And you mentioned Harry when we came in.” She frowned. “Who's the last guy?”

“Louis!” said Niall. “He's got a French name but he's English, they all are.” 

“So what's he like?” Robin asked. 

“Ah...” started Niall. That was... a bit hard to say, actually. Niall thought about his friends. Zayn was quiet and dreamy and creative; Liam was responsible; Harry had two sides- silly as a little kid one minute and intensely focused the next. But what was Louis's defining quality? His wit, maybe? He had a quick mind and a quick tongue, which more often than not got him into trouble. He joked around constantly in class, liking the spotlight, wanting everyone's attention. In general Niall would say that Louis was a good friend but he could be very unpredictable. And he'd been in a terrible mood lately. Niall put this down to the extra stress of the fall performance and rehearsals. He was sure that Louis would be fine as soon as the semester was over. 

“He's very clever,” Niall settled on at last. “ And he's funny. He's a good person to have with you if you want to plan prank.” 

“I'll keep that in mind,” said Robin, raising an eyebrow. There was a burst of laughter from one of the tables of game players. Robin scooted a little closer, so they could hear each other. 

“You know, this is the first date I've actually set up through tinder,” said Robin. “I was a little nervous.” 

“Yeah, this is my first tinder date as well,” said Niall. He glanced back toward the living room area at the front of the bar. He must bring all the others here sometime. He'd just spotted Cards Against Humanity on the games shelf... Niall had just turned back to Robin to say something about how glad he was she'd show him this place when she leaned across the table and kissed him. Niall was caught completely by surprise and he actually twitched back a little so her lips ended up just at the corner of his mouth. Robin leaned back immediately, looking mortified. 

“Oh god, I'm sorry!” said Niall. “I didn't mean to- you startled me- sorry!” 

“Uh,” said Robin. She was blushing bright red. “Guess I should have warned you...” 

“I was just thinking about- I was thinking about something else...” Niall had meant that as an apology but it sounded more like an excuse when it came out of his mouth. Shit. “I mean, it wasn't anything- interesting-” He tried to clarify. “Just thinking about my friends and how I'd like to bring them here...” This wasn't helping. He paused for a minute to give her a contrite look. 

“Could we maybe try that again?” Niall asked. 

“Ummm... no, I don't think so,” said Robin. She had regained some of her self possession. “I- I don't think we've really been on the same page this evening...” 

“But-” Now Niall felt terrible. He did like Robin, he really did. He just- he'd just rather be here with Liam, Zayn, Harry and Louis, he realized. _Ah._ Maybe that was the problem. 

“I have had a really good time with you this evening,” said Niall, completely sincere. “I like talking with you.” 

“I like talking with you as well,” said Robin, somewhat formally. “But I think- I think we should probably just be friends.” 

“Um, alright,” said Niall. He wanted to make it up to her somehow, though. She'd worn that nice dress and bought him dessert and everything... “Then let me just say, as a friend, that you are a lovely and interesting person, and any guy who gets to go on a date with you is very lucky, even if he makes a mess of it.” 

“It wasn't a mess,” said Robin, and she smiled as if trying to convince him it was alright. “I think we- we just weren't thinking about each other in the same way. But you were very good company for a Sunday evening. And if you do want to go to see the Golden Gate Bridge before the end of your semester, my invitation stands.” 

“Maybe I'll take you up on that,” said Niall, though he was pretty sure he wouldn't. 

Robin drove him back to the dorms, and he told her to have a good day at school and that he'd see her next time they went to Lucky Cat. She told him she'd give him some extra fortune cookies.

***

The next weekend Niall took Liam, Harry, Zayn and Louis to Candybar, presenting it to them as proudly as if he'd built the place himself. They took over two couches in the front part of the bar, shared five desserts, and played the dirtiest game of Cards Against Humanity that Niall had even seen. They stayed until they got kicked out at closing and indulged in a taxi ride back to Pine Street. When Niall looked back on this later, he remembered it as one of the last really good times- before everything fell apart. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is definitely an in-between story. I'm writing my way back towards the events that occur after Part 2. We'll get there. As always, one of my favorite things about this series is including actual places. The Haight-Ashbury is an awesome neighborhood, I love taking out of town friends there. The restaurant in this story is [The Cirus Club](http://www.citrusclubsf.com/)\- it and [Candybar](http://www.candybarsf.com/) are both real and despite this story would make good date spots probably. I'm actually extremely curious if anyone from San Francisco or the Bay Area is following this series- if so you should give me a wave in the comments :) Updates about this series show up on the [tumblr](http://akikotree.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Thank you to my beta and co-conspirator [mybeanieandme](http://archiveofourown.org/users/mybeanieandme/pseuds/mybeanieandme). Looking forward to next parts :3


End file.
